Today we are spending a little extra time getting to know
Lightning Quick Reads author, Eric Price.
First let’s take a gander at Eric’s bio:
Eric Price lives with his wife and two sons in northwest
Iowa. He began publishing in 2008 when he started writing a quarterly column
for a local newspaper. Later that same year he published his first work of
fiction, a spooky children’s story called Ghost Bed and Ghoul Breakfast. Since
then, he has written stories for children, young adults, and adults. Three of his
science fiction stories have won honorable mention from the CrossTime Annual
Science Fiction Contest. His first YA fantasy novel, Unveiling the Wizards’
Shroud, received the Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval and the
Literary Classics Award for Best First Novel. His second novel, The Squire and
the Slave Master, scheduled for an August 4, 2015 release, continues the Saga
of the Wizards. He is a member of SCBWI. Find him online at
authorericprice.com.
LQR: Tell our readers a little about you.
Eric: I lead a fairly mundane life, which is exactly how I
want it. I work on my wife’s family farm and write. That, as well as my
children’s sports and other activities, keeps me busy… sometimes busier than
I’d like. We spend most of our free time and money traveling. I think kids
learn more from first hand experiences than they ever will in a classroom.
LQR: If you had to pick only one moment that spurred you to
write professionally, what moment is the most defining/inciting?
Eric: The moment I go back to the most is when I found a
secondhand copy of Stephen King’s The Shining. I didn’t like to read as a
child. I found this book when I was in seventh grade, and it changed everything
for me. It’s the first book I read entirely for my own pleasure. It spurred me
to get into other authors like Poe and Irving, and before long I started to
think I could probably create a story too.
LQR: Does the majority of your work focus around or within a
single theme? If so, what is it?
Eric: I don’t really set out to write about any certain
themes, yet most of my ideas, at least to some extent, seem to focus on
fighting against corruption. I think I have a rather cynical world view,
especially about those in positions of power. From business management, school
boards, city councils, and everything up to world leaders, I have a hard time
trusting individuals to make decisions based on the greater good and not
putting their own self-interest above all else.
LQR: Tell us what you’re currently working on currently.
Eric: I’m in the editing process of The Squire and the Slave Master. It’s book two of the Saga of the Wizards, which started with Unveiling the Wizards’ Shroud (and
assuming my publisher accepts it, concludes with A Wizard Reborn). My working titles for these books were Yara’s
Sequel and Owen’s Sequel respectively. After Unveiling, Yara and Owen follow
different paths, so a large portion of the two sequels overlap. It’s been
challenging to write, but I like experimenting with different styles. Oh, I
guess I should say a little about what actually happens in the book. Here’s a
blurb:
After the adventure to save King
Kendrick, for Yara, everyday life has grown monotonous. The dull work of
learning her father’s blacksmithing trade, and the pressure from her parents to
decide what she plans on doing with her life, has her nerves so stressed she
snaps at her father’s slightest teasing.
Lucky for her, a surprise
messenger from the castle brings the king’s request for her to join a
collaborative mission between the Central and Western Domains of Wittatun to
stop a recently discovered slave operation in a land to the west. King Kendrick
and Owen want her to accompany the mission as a secret weapon disguised as a
squire.
She has to keep secret not only
her magical abilities from any possible traitors, but also her gender. The
people of the Western Domain have a superstition prohibiting girls from
sailing. But a chill wind carries the distinct odor of sabotage. Can one girl
survive to destroy an evil rooted much deeper than mere slavery?
The Squire and the Slave Master is scheduled for an August 4, 2015
release as an eBook.
LQR: What is one of your favorite authorial moments from
your career so far?
Eric: I’ve had some great classroom visits the past month.
I’ve been working with an American Literature class in France. I did Skype
interviews with them in two sessions, and they are working on a project for me.
After reading the first two chapters of Unveiling the Wizards’ Shroud, they had
an assignment to write what they thought would come next. If I can figure out
how, I’m going to post them on my website and let people vote for their
favorite. I’ll send the winners a copy of the book.
On the same day as the second interview, I also spoke in
person to a middle school literature class in my hometown. They read my book as
a class assignment (it was slightly above their reading level, so they took it
slow and had a lot of classroom discussion). They all enjoyed it a lot, and for
some of them it was their first experience with fantasy. Seeing the excitement
in their faces in talking to me about the book was a great experience. They
even did some book related artwork. I’m planning a blog post about both
interviews.
LQR: Share with us a five year and ten year goal for your
writing career.
Eric: I hope to have a book out every year or every other
year. I’ve finished the first book of what I hope to be a three book middle
grade series, and I have several standalone titles, some even for adults, in
the planning phase.
LQR: Do you write what you read? Watch? What are your
favorite television shows and movies?
Eric: I tend to read a little of everything, and my writing
does tend to follow suit. My first love was horror, and the first story I ever
had published was a spooky children’s tale. When I started reading a lot of
science fiction, I wrote a few sci-fi stories. Some of them even won awards.
When I moved on to reading fantasy, I wrote Unveiling
the Wizards’ Shroud. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of P.I. books. So far I
don’t have any stories of my own surfacing.
I recently watched the complete series of How I Met Your
Mother over the course of about a month. I’m impressed by the writing on that
show more than any other I can think of. Every detail, no matter how trivial it
seems at the time it’s introduced, works its way back into the plot.
LQR: If you had one week away from any and all
responsibility what would you want to spend your time doing?
Eric: I can think of roughly a million things to do, and
they’d all be somewhere around the Tropic of Cancer.
LQR: Anything else you’d like to add?
Eric: Just a plea from all authors: Please review our books,
and if you liked it, tell your friends about it. I’m not as good at writing
reviews as I should be, but I do try to make up for it by telling others about
the books/authors I like. These are the two most helpful things you can do to
promote a book or author you like.
LQR: Where can readers find you online?
Website/Blog authorericprice.com
Twitter: @AuthorEricPrice
Facebook: Author Eric Price
Goodreads: Eric Price and
Unveiling
the Wizards’ Shroud
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